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Mzimba South health workers threaten strike

Nurses and clinicians at Mzimba South District Hospital have threatened to down tools from Friday should authorities fail to pay them salary arrears dating back to 2015 and address other work-related issues.

In a letter addressed to district commissioner (DC) Emmanuel Bambe dated December 14, the staff have decried lack of concrete responses from authorities despite several reminders.

Declined to comment: Bambe

On salaries, they state that since 2015, most health workers at M’Mbelwa District Council have not yet received their salary arrears.

Reads part of the letter: “We, therefore, ask your office that our January salary must be inclusive of our arrears, respectively. We believe that your office will take this issue seriously. Failure to address this issue, we will call for legal industrial action.”

The workers have also given the council up to January 2021 to promote all workers that have required qualifications  as is the case in other districts, and that they have to be paid this month’s salary on December 22.

On patients’ welfare, they have queried why a monthly fund allocated to manage health matters is deducted in the name of shared cost, which they state is making it difficult for the hospital to provide food to patients.

When contacted, Bambe declined to comment on the matter and referred the matter to the council’s director of administration Steven Chima who said hospital authorities are better-placed to comment.

However, hospital spokesperson Ulunji Luhanga and director of health and social services Ted Bandawe did not pick their phones when contacted.

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